Japan's centuries-old water art reappears in Taiwan, Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival debuts in Yilan

Tokyo Fantasy Japan brings "Japanese Traditional Magic Hand Wife and Water Art", which combines exquisite magic and gorgeous water art to show the unique charm of Japan's traditional performing arts of the Edo period.

No need to fly abroad, in Yilan you can witness with your own eyes the ancient secret techniques of Japan's Edo period that have been passed down to this day! The National Center for Traditional Arts' "2026 Asia Pacific Traditional Arts Festival" takes "The Land of Many Waters" as its curatorial core and brings together international front-line traditional arts teams from Japan, India, Indonesia and South Korea. Among them, the most eye-catching one is the Edo "Water Art" that has been revived in Taiwan by a Japanese magic group spanning nearly a century.

Miaocheng Square plans cultural experience activities every day, and foreign art teams bring special performances and interactions, inviting the public to experience the charm of traditional arts from various countries up close.

The Art Center explained that the Japanese "Tokyo Mirage" team will bring two national treasure-level skills this time, including the traditional illusion "Tematsu" that originated in the Edo period, and the extremely rare "Water Art" performance that has been lost for many years. Water art mainly uses exquisite and complicated hidden mechanisms to cause water columns to accurately spurt and fluctuate in accordance with the rhythm of live classical music. This century-old stunt that combines craft mechanisms and stage illusions has made its reappearance in Yilan this time and has become one of the highlights of this year's art festival with great visual impact.

In addition to Japanese water illusions, the Indian Caravan Band also brought the vast vitality of Assam's sacred river "Brahmaputra" to the stage. The orchestra uses the passionate Bihu dance as its main theme, and performs live performances with big drums, traditional pipe flutes and unique buffalo horn horns to present the flood test, mythical rituals and spring celebrations nurtured by the river. The Indonesian Big Wave Dance Group combines Javanese classical dance, shadow puppetry and ancient Gamelan musical instruments to interpret the ancient legend of warriors searching for the water of life; the South Korean Sin Enzhu Dance Troupe joins hands with the "South Coast God Festival" Preservation Association to demonstrate the maritime beliefs of coastal fishing villages with solemn ritual dances, leading the audience to enjoy the multiple cultural scenes of Asia's rivers and oceans.